the essence of the game is still the same, quest to max level and do dungeons/raids/pvp to better your stats. Everything else is just flavouring on that basic theme of logging in to make your character stronger.

Gotta disagree here. While the leveling portion is definitely in, just about everything else has been distorted big time. One of the big draws in the game was the social experience, you made tons of buddies while leveling, often because you had to group up with other people, whether it was dungeons, tough quests, or if you just needed help with some odd ball thing. Nowadays you can hit 90 without ever talking to anybody because of stuff like LFD and the quests being incredibly easy. I think it kinda sucks out the fun because you never have a reason to make buddies with anyone, and easy content IMO just simply does not feel rewarding.

At 90, I think it's even worse. You're forced to go into random queue's with strangers you'll never meet again, and then the jump from LFR to actual raiding is incredibly huge. In the previous versions of the game, they'd at least do stuff to prepare you somewhat, whether it was grinding out gear, or just doing 5 mans which required much more coordination now then they did back then. The essence of the game has changed greatly IMO.

Started in vanilla WoW and overall I have to say the game has consistently changed for the better. My primary criteria for "better" is accessibility and WoW has only become more accessible and casts off locking players out of content or broader options for no good reason.

My only significant criticism is that questing is too easy, there is absolutely zero challenge and makes the process feel pointless. Questing should be a challenge and leveling should teach you about your class, and the current model fails on both counts. Personally I am not fond of the new talent system, I liked the more complex one, but I also understand the rationale behind the change so I'm not hugely critical of it.

But overall, WoW has become bigger, more engaging, more open, visually excellent and continues to maintain flexibility and choice in many areas. My personal suspicion about those who claim vanilla to TBC were superior don't like the plebes getting in the way of their own artificially inflated sense of worth and status so there's a heavy bias at play.

Rarely is a game perfect, even more rare is a multiplayer game going to meet the needs of everyone that plays or has played it, but WoW is pretty darned close to meeting rather high standards. People will always complain because that's what we do, but I think, logically speaking, that WoW is far better than it was back in vanilla.

well I am not saying lets go back to vanilla. I am just saying that with gears raining down from every direction. every player has a dragon or shiny/epic gear the game is just too much.
Believe me no one hated vanilla more than me. I played a druid and paladin for gods sake...

I just feel like whatever was drawing me to the world of azeroth before just isn't doing it anymore.
maybe i got older? *shrug*

I have only played since end of TBC, so have really no clue what it was like before that other than the quest I did to level through the old zones at the time. What I remember from leveling back then is way faster and much easier now to do. I no longer have to spend hours and hours grinding crap out (frankly I do not miss that in the least). I like that they made quest gear spec related in MOP, it made for away better leveling experience.

Leveling professions are way better than they use to be. As for the shiny/epic gear (this surely is not the first thread to hit this topic) is old. I surely don't miss some of the stuff of what happened back in wrath, but that said it is really time to this topic go bye, bye. This is a matured game, not a year or two game.

Blizzard is a business that business needs to make money they need the very casual players to keep this game afloat. Until they started pumping content out as fast as they do now, people like you left and did not return until the next big patch or raid. It was the people that to this day that play constantly the keep this game going. So throwing them a bone every now and then is very good for business. You should not feel you are being cheated in anyway; you still get things these people will never get or see even when it becomes old content.

So if you have a hard time with that, then maybe the game has passed you by. Coming here complaining, well it is pretty easy to figure out what to do. Either except how the game is today or go find something that actually fits your style of play. You are right maybe you gotten older, not sure what that actually means though, since I am 51.

After more than 8 years I would say the game I started playing has changed in many respects for the better. Some say it has gotten easier over time and some think it has a very nice mix for everyone to enjoy.

No matter what people are going to complain, it is human nature to complain. Nothing Blizzard creates or does is going to satisfy 100% the subs. Like any other business’s they put out the best product they can. It is your choice to decide if you want buy or play their product with your $15 per month.

I played from May 2005 up till Nov of 2012. Personally I thought WoW hit it's best stride during WotLK, but TBC and Cata were both entertaingin to me as well, Classic was good, but only in that things were so new and fresh. From a logistics standpoint (40m raids, 2+ hour long 5m duengeons, it was just a mess. MoP I just didn't find entertaining at all.

Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh. You touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding.
You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it.
Sovereign
Mass Effect

Alliance since 2005. I would have to say my favorite WoW moments/times include defeating Arthas (The reason I moved from War 3 to WoW), the Attack on Undercity, and the Siege of Orgrimmar. I am also probably alone here, but the Siege of Orgrimmar is the first thing this expansion that feels like "WoW" to me. Perhaps I am biased, and probably alone here, but SoO is the first raid that felt like it mattered to me in MoP.

Do not mistake what I say. I liked a lot of the gameplay additions MoP brought, but SoO (and much of the story leading up to it in 5.3) really stand out to me as what WoW means to me.

Gotta disagree here. While the leveling portion is definitely in, just about everything else has been distorted big time. One of the big draws in the game was the social experience, you made tons of buddies while leveling, often because you had to group up with other people, whether it was dungeons, tough quests, or if you just needed help with some odd ball thing. Nowadays you can hit 90 without ever talking to anybody because of stuff like LFD and the quests being incredibly easy. I think it kinda sucks out the fun because you never have a reason to make buddies with anyone, and easy content IMO just simply does not feel rewarding.

When leveling I hardly use the dungeon finder, if I do feel like running a dungeon I spam general chat until I get at least 3 people in zone to queue for one. Don't blame the LFD for being lazy on your part. Most of the time I would prefer not to be in a group questing with others they slow me down. Questing might have gotten easier, but it also got a lot faster, most people don't like to level and want the experience over faster than it began. The community is responsible for the social aspect of the game, not Blizzard, they just provide the tools, you are the one whom decides which to utilize.

At 90, I think it's even worse. You're forced to go into random queue's with strangers you'll never meet again, and then the jump from LFR to actual raiding is incredibly huge. In the previous versions of the game, they'd at least do stuff to prepare you somewhat, whether it was grinding out gear, or just doing 5 mans which required much more coordination now then they did back then. The essence of the game has changed greatly IMO.

From my experience grind out gear is no different in the lfr or 5 man dungeons, again if you put the effort into putting some of a group together yourself, you do get a lot of the bad experience from people that actually don't really want to help out. So the game has not change a lot your approach to utilizing it has. Complaining, complaining, complaining. I read how much the game has changed for the worst, seriously this is a very old and worn out excuse for not having some accountability for own enjoyment. You and many others would rather chose to blame others for your own failing and laziness.

Not sure how many of these people make it through their daily lives, they think some else should take them by the hand and show them the way. Sad, we are responsible for both our lives and the fun we have in it. So it no the game that ahs changed as much as the community within it has changed. I am sure their are less and less older teens and adults, matter of fact I am sure of it. One only has look trade or any other chat in the game to see that. This stuff started really hard at the end of wrath, from my perspective to a point now where it is completely off the charts. It was not the LFD or LFR that did this, it was the people that chose to make this occur. So the game really has not changed a lot, the people playing it did. Blizzard is not responsible for that.

I enjoyed Vanilla and TBC most because I had a lot of IRL friends playing this game at the same time. We also grew close to another group of friends from California for a time, and actually met on a few occasions back then too. There are aspects of Vanilla gameplay I like much better than today and the community back then was way better, but mechanically speaking, the game is in the best place it's ever been. Basically, they streamlined just about everything that is boring, and pretty much took out all the grind.

the essence of the game is still the same, quest to max level and do dungeons/raids/pvp to better your stats. Everything else is just flavouring on that basic theme of logging in to make your character stronger.

True, but that's also akin to saying that Blackjack and Texas Hold'em Poker are essentially the same game because they both use playing cards with numbers on them. In a real sense, the "flavoring" is greater than the gears and bolts of a game. This is why a game like World of Warcraft has multiple millions of concurrent players and has been around since 2004 and other games built on the same system (content to increase stats) have been born, withered and died in its lifespan. WoW is not Aion, Aion is not Rift, and Rift is not EverQuest even though they all use the same basic engines once you get down to the fundamental level.

"The City Council announces the opening of a new Dog Park at the corner of Earl and Somerset, near the Ralph’s. They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the Dog Park. People are not allowed in the Dog Park. It is possible you will see Hooded Figures in the Dog Park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the Dog Park. The fence is electrified and highly dangerous. Try not to look at the Dog Park, and especially do not look for any period of time at the Hooded Figures. The Dog Park will not harm you."

When a game like GTAV/FIFA comes out on consoles (or Diablo on console) and I play that 24/7 I feel the same way about WoW. It takes me a few weeks of raiding again then to "like" it again. At least when I quit for a week I get really distanced about WoW and immediatly start thinking about quitting/not wanting to log in at all/for a raid. I didn't have that in the past before Cataclysm (Which was so terrible I quit for the whole duration).
And yeah I miss my irl friends terribly, we used to be around 8 in vanilla / TBC but right now I'm the only one playing, feels bad not being able to talk about it anymore like we always used to. (Math class being prime example, I think we all failed the same year because Math class was Talk-About-Wow class).

I just feel like whatever was drawing me to the world of azeroth before just isn't doing it anymore.
maybe i got older? *shrug*

It's hard to describe, but I'm in that same boat with you. Game feels a lot less personal, interpersonal, and no one "needs" a guild anymore to do anything of import. You can raid, beat the end boss, farm, do challenge modes, arena, PVP, and all of it through OQueue or cross-realm grouping... there's no more server-based reputation to worry about, people do what they want, and in the end...

NONE OF IT MATTERS. There's always going to be another "big bad," new gear to get, and other things to grind away at (Emperor Shaohao rep is RIDICULOUS).

I'm seriously trying to take a large step back from WoW atm and focus more on console gaming and other hobbies/interests, since I get the distinct feeling that after all the effort I've put into the game (raiding since Classic, being both hardcore and casual, achieving crazy things, forming and leading a raiding guild for years, roleplay, and everything else), I just kind of feel let down.

I have been playing since vanilla also -I have played off and on but have done at least some raiding in BC, Wrath, Cata and MoP - I'd say the most fun I have had with WoW was probably the very first raid tier of Cata (though it fell off the deep and after that)

MoP is easily my least favorite xpac - the zones didn't have enough variety and leveling felt very slow - the level 90 content was an endless amount of dailys for the most part and I had little desire to level alts through Pandaria content